A group of extraordinary women in Nsikazi who aim to provide for their families and earn a living, gathered to grow a vegetable garden while also nurturing their agricultural skills.

The group comprises mostly middle-aged women who can no longer find stable employment, have small and informal businesses they run from home and those who just love farming. What they grow, they get to harvest and share among one another to feed their families and also sell to the community for an income.

The garden was founded by the Iqhawekazi Foundation and is headed by Shelly Sifunda.

One of the women, Josephina Mnisi, said being part of the group has helped her with the daily operations at her early childhood centre, Ben Educare.

“As the centre is still unfunded, I can harvest vegetables to sell to obtain essentials needed in the daily operations of Ben Educare. I am unemployed so being able to get extra money from the garden, I am confident that the centre can be a success while I wait to receive funding,” Mnisi said. She started working in the garden when she established the centre in 2015.

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Sifunda said the garden has the potential to supply vegetables to supermarkets in Pienaar and Mbombela.

“We already supply to Galito’s Nelspruit in Brown Street and we appreciate its support to uplift women who sometimes struggle to make ends meet. Through such support, several women are able to start their own organisations and further develop their skills to become skilled bakers, tailors and more. We have received support from the Mpumalanga Department of Agriculture, Rural Development, Land and Environmental Affairs, which donated smart agricultural boxes and seeds, and the University of Mpumalanga, which helped fund the small dam for water,” Sifunda said.

As more local women continue to join in, the garden area is becoming too small to grow more vegetables. “We are growing and we have attracted more women from other areas such as Likazi and KaBokweni. We have encouraged them to gather and have their own gardens closer to their homes for effectiveness.”

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Some of the challenges these women face include insufficient land to increase production, a lack of tools, water supply and skills development from relevant community stakeholders.

“Earlier this year, we received tools and seeds from the Ehlanzeni District Municipality, but everything was stolen by a group of young men almost immediately after we had received it. We approached the Msogwaba Traditional Authority for the allocation of land, but the Inkosi has no excess land to give us. We are also in need of skills development funding, as most opportunities are open to young people but not to older women. My wish for us is to get funding to obtain four chickens per woman as a start-up for an egg production business,” Sifunda said.